Star Wars Battlefront 2 story scene reveals the Emperor's final command

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Earlier this week we scoped out a Star Wars Battlefront 2 video hosted by John Boyega that hyped up everything the game will have to offer. Included amongst all of it was a brief snippet from the cutscene in which Iden Versio, commanding officer of the Imperial special forces unit Inferno Squad, is told that the Emperor is dead. Today, Sony unveiled the rest of the "single player story scene" that clip comes from, and it's pretty good—and a little creepy, too.

It's interesting that Versio appears as committed to Team Bad Guys as her father, who appears to be a highly-placed and trusted member of the Imperial command structure. She seems quite eager to dive into Operation Cinder, and do her part to "burn away" the concepts of "resistance, rebellion, [and] defiance."

To me, that's what will make Star Wars Battlefront 2 interesting (or not): I'm sure it will be a competent shooter, but how will Versio's character arc unfold? Will she eventually make a hero turn, or will she remain true to the cause, despite being privy to the Empire's dark side? I think the latter is more likely—Versio has already risen to the top of one of the foremost Imperial goon squads, and she clearly still has a taste for the job—and I hope that's how it works out: "Fight for space-fascism" may not be the easiest story to tell, but done well, it'd make for a nice break from the usual "Force be with you" pap.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 comes out on November 17, but before that there will be an open multiplayer beta that will begin at 1 am PT/4 am ET on October 4 for those who have preordered and October 6 for everyone else, and run until 9 am PT/12 pm ET on October 9.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.